Recently, a co-worker gave me a set of religious CDs on the topic of sin and morals. She is trying to convert me, and while that's never going to happen until she can prove there is a god, it gives me an excellent opportunity to check out the materials that Christians think are important in the discussion of religion. After listening to these CDs, I walked away with one truly over-powering observation:Every shred of Christian morality are essentially Humanist concepts wrapped in the shroud of religion.Why can't the religious among us see this? Does any rational person think that there was no morality before Jesus? We know that the Romans, Egyptians, Chinese and Aztecs all had written laws/codes of conduct prior to Jesus (or the Old Testament in the cases of the Egyptians and Chinese), so why is it that Christians think they have the right to declare that their religion is the basis of all morality in the world?It seems like an overly obvious point that morality has changed over the last two thousand years, yet the bible hasn't been updated in that time to reflect those changes. What has changed is the deepening understanding of the world we live in and a much deeper ability to work with and appreciate those that are different than ourselves. These changes, of course, are rooted entirely in humanist concepts and exist fully separated from religious dogma. In fact, we could make the argument that the proponents of religious dogma have stood in the way of advancements in humanism, and subsequently improvements in overall morality.As an example, look at the current struggles between women and the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church has a long history of enforcing policies that are specifically aimed at leaving women in a lesser role than men (the fact that in 2012, women are not allowed to be priests, and therefore not allowed to be a part of any decision making, is stunning). This new push against birth control (while still standing firm against abortion and sex ed) is just further proof that in the Vatican's view, women should not be allowed to govern their own reproductive health and should exist solely as wives and mothers. As Americans, we know that this position is not a moral one (aside from your pro-life vs pro-choice position) because we have come to accept women as equals over the past few hundred years. As Susan B Anthony was fully aware, women's equality happened because of humanism and not because of religious dogma (in fact, religious dogma was/is the primary hindrance to women's rights).My question is simple: what is it going to take to get people to finally see this point that is preposterously obvious?See More

Let me start by saying one thing: I've always been an Atheist. I was born an Atheist (as everyone did) and my parents Catholicism just never took with me. In the third grade, I came across a definition of Atheism in the dictionary at my parochial grade school and it changed my life forever (this story also includes my friend Bill and I discovering the definition of "Fart" in the same dictionary). For the first time I had a title for what I felt beyond simply "Different." Throughout my life, I have carried the mantle of out-of-the-closet Atheist with pride and I've never backed down from a theist's challenge or debate, but I've also always figured that people can believe whatever they want as long as it doesn't effect me. But recently, something else is stirring inside me...activism.I have two wonderful children that are just now entering that phase of life where they start observing what is going on around them and asking questions. Around Christmas time last year, my daughter (7 years old in the 2nd grade) started coming home with stories about baby Jesus from school (yes, public school). I could never get a clear answer of whether these stories were coming from the teacher or other kids, but either way it has changed the way I feel about the religion around me. I now realize that I am going to have to fight the influence of religion in my children's lives whether I originally wanted to or not. And like any other fight that I've undertaken in my life, half-hearted isn't going to cut it.I'm going to the Reason Rally on the 24th and that day will mark the first time that I have ever been to any kind of Atheist, Humanist, Freethought, etc function...ever. It seems weird that I have lived as an outspoken Atheist for all these years, and I've never attempted to reach out to other Atheists for support or community. There is a part of me that wants to start making Youtube videos about the perils of being an Atheist parent in America and another part that wants to start getting together with other Atheists and other Atheist parents on a regular basis. All I know is that I have to start somewhere. Any input from the community here that may help me direct this drive to activism that I feel would be much appreciated. See More